Mmmmm Bacon & a Salad for Good Measure (or Suck It, Rachel Ray! Part IV)

 

My husband, godblesshim, grew up on a diet of pure junk.  See, he was raised by a single mom who did what a lot of single moms do - work their asses off and have little time or money to feed their kids well.  It wouldn't have mattered anyway since she's a terrible cook.  She once gave us a meatloaf that weighed 10lbs.  I don't know how she turned a pound of ground beef into a ten-pound behemoth, but suffice to say, that creation was absolutely inedible.  Being a Southerner, she loves buffets, and those were probably the most well-rounded meals my husband got as a kid.  He remembers being fed Pepsi (which he drank out of the 2-liter bottle) and cold plain hot dogs for lunch when he was a toddler - turned him off hot dogs for years.  White trash, much?  ;)  


Anyway, when he finally got his own money, he still opted for crap like Hawaiian rolls and chicken wings, despite the fact that he worked at a grocery store.  When we met, he ate a Spicy Chicken from Wendy's at least once, if not twice, a day.  Obviously, his palate was a little difficult to work with when we started living together.  True, he does think I'm an awesome cook, but he's not comparing it to much.  I had to find ways to make balanced meals more tasty for him.  


Salads are particularly challenging.  I love salad - grew up eating all kinds of veggies, and when I moved out, I got creative.  My husband, on the other hand, thinks plain lettuce is a salad, and powers through it with a grimace like a little kid eating lima beans.  Then I remembered a recipe I got from my mom - BLT Chicken Salad.  With most guys, put bacon on it and they'll eat it right up.  David requests this at least once a month now.


BLT Chicken Salad
*makes 2 large dinner salads or 4 lunch-sized salads

*1 pound bacon (technically, you only need about a 1/2# but you might as well cook the whole thing because, let's face it, everyone will snack on a few pieces before dinner)
*4 Market Day Chick'nsteaks or 1 pack of Perdue Fit & Easy Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Filets (basically, it amounts to 1 unsplit large boneless chicken breast)
*2 tsp Italian Seasoning
*1 tsp garlic powder
*salt & pepper
*1 head romaine lettuce
*2 tomatoes (I like roma/plum)
*2 scallions, greens only, chopped OR bunch of chives, minced


Dressing
*2 tbs Mayo (I used light mayo)
*2 tbs basil paste (I get the stuff in tubes in the produce aisle) OR 1 tsp dried basil OR 2 tsp fresh basil, minced  *Fresh or tubed basil ALWAYS tastes better
*juice of 1/2 lemon
*1/4 tsp dijon mustard (optional)


1.  Cook the bacon.  I prefer to cut the raw bacon into 1/2 inch pieces and use a stock pot because it seems easier to cook with less splattering and more even cooking without having to watch as carefully.  If you cook whole strips in a skillet, make sure to pull each one apart to ensure even cooking.  In the end, you'll need to break everything up in pieces to mix in the dressing anyway.


2. Rinse and dry chicken.  Sprinkle garlic, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning evenly on each side of breasts.  Preheat a skillet over medium heat.  Use Pam or butter to keep the chicken from sticking.


3.  Cook chicken.  Depending on the thickness, it can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes per side.  After you flip, cover the skillet with a lid to keep some of the moisture in & lower the heat a little - trust me on that.


4.  By now, the bacon should be done.  Remove to a paper towel covered plate with slotted spoon to drain and cool.  Chicken should be done shortly thereafter.  Put the chicken on a plate, let cool for about 10 minutes and dice.


5.  For the dressing, mix mayo, basil, and lemon juice together until well combined.  Add diced chicken and roughly 1/2 # cooked bacon.  Stir to coat.


6.  Prepare your greens, drop a few spoonfuls of chicken/bacon mix on top, sprinkle scallions or chives to garnish and throw on some croutons.  Voila!


*For the chicken, sometimes I use cajun seasoning or a combo or chili paste & garlic instead of the italian seasoning, omitting the dijon in the dressing.  Dowhutchulike.






PS - Don't be surprised if any odorous whizzpopping is oddly reminiscent of a Waffle House grease trap.  Prepare yourself.

Meat-free Fridays Don't Have To Mean Fishsticks (or Suck It, Rachel Ray part III)

I love Costco.  I mean, what red-blooded American girl doesn't dream of lugging home 36 rolls of toilet paper at a steal of a price?  I think most of us shop at big box bulk stores like Costco or Sam's to stock up on necessities like paper towels, laundry detergent, and a 48-count convenience store box of Snickers, right?  Buying in bulk can mean great savings - pick up 6 steaks and freeze some for later, etc.  Planning a party is easier when you can grab 1lb of freshly cooked cocktail shrimp for $10, a tray of hye rollers, and a giant bag of salad greens to offset the huge bag of Doritos.

But then there's that whole food section - all sorts of possibly delicious concoctions like soup, cheese, breads, and frozen meals.  Unfortunately, you can't just buy one of something to try it.  That pack of 12 croissants looks and smells wonderful, but maybe they taste like poo.  It's a gamble, which means you might be wasting more money than it's worth.

I'm not a religious person - the only reasons I know we're in the middle of Lent is because Mardi Gras is over and McDonald's keeps advertising their Filet O' Fish.  But I know some of my readers do try to keep to the whole "fish on Friday" thing and others aren't big fans of red meat, so I decided to try something fishy.  Don't get me wrong, I still love the old childhood fish sticks and Kraft dinner Friday meals, but we could class it up a bit.

Blackened Salmon Burgers
All ingredients were found at Costco, save the alfafa sprouts and cajun seasoning.

Pre-made frozen Salmon patties (bulk bag of 12, keeps for a few months)
Bel Gioso fresh mozzarella (bulk pack of 2 logs, you need about an ounce for each burger, but it keeps for about a month - make a caprese salad in the future!)
Tzatziki sauce (tub of 16oz, but keeps for about a month. It's a great alternative for chip/veggie dips and can be used for kabobs or turkey burgers in the future)
roma tomatoes
English (hothouse) cucumbers (usually a pack of 3, keeps for about 2 weeks - slice some up for salads and dip the rest in the tzatziki!)
alfalfa sprouts
hamburger buns (freeze the ones you don't use for a grilling day later)

1. Spray a pan with nonstick cooking spray and heat over medium-high flame

2. Remove how ever many salmon burgers you need (keep frozen until time to cook)

3. Place burgers on pan, sprinkle tops of burgers with cajun seasoning, which will blacken a little after you flip them.  Cook each side for 5 minutes, covered.

4. Flip burgers one last time and place slices of fresh mozzarella on top, cover, turn heat to low and let the cheese melt.

5. Slather buns with tzatziki, arrange tomatoes and cucumbers.

6. Place burgers on bun and instead of lettuce, try sprouts.

7. Enjoy!  Since salmon's a fairly delicate but distinct flavor, I chose fresh mozzarella instead of cheddar or American because of its mild taste but exceptional meltability.

Normally, I'm not a fan of fish - but I love these.  This is also a great recipe for turkey burgers.  Have a little salad or some chips on the side and you're set.  15 minutes from start to finish!

Chili Cornbread Bake (or, "Suck it, Rachel Ray part II")

My mother, godblessher, is not the greatest cook.  She can bake like the dickens but tends to recycle the same ten meals, all of which are definitely on the bland side.  A half teaspoon of cayenne in jambalaya will set her mouth ablaze.  She is a wuss.  It's not entirely her fault - her mother used plain old original Ragu for spaghetti night - weird, watery, and congealed with the slightest hint of red sauce were her noodles.  And speaking of noodles, Dad ate almost everything over noodles, he loved them so.  He'd even put ketchup, yes you read that right - Heinz Ketchup, on cold noodles and eat them like they were manna from heaven.  Consequently, pepper and salt were the only "taste" ingredients she used for most of her adult life.  And because of that, I never liked chili.  

In my early 20's, I started cooking.  Adding this spice, using that herb - 95% of the time, I received a good response.  While my brother was in the hospital, I'd make dinner for Dad a couple nights a week, and he eventually let it slip that he preferred my chicken & mashed potatoes over Mom's baked-at-400-for-an-hour-chicken-breasts and wallpaper paste taters (though we never told her).

When I was dating my now husband, I started tackling Mom's old recipes trying to improve upon them.  The Chicken Kiev I made from scratch is pretty much the reason why he proposed.  Stroganoff, for example, has become one of my husband's favorites.  Then I decided to take on chili.  I've smelled good chili at restaurants, so I knew it's not just tomatoes, 1 tsp of chili powder, ground beef & kidney beans despite my mother's attempts to make me believe otherwise.  

I searched recipe websites looking for the perfect chili.  Texans, apparently, make the best chili but I know you don't mess with Texas. (Never EVER insult a Texan's brisket - they'll kill you dead with their bbq-covered tongs)  I wanted to give it some kick - not quite like my chili con carne which requires 3 different peppers with varying degrees of heat, but something I could whip up in a cinch without making a supermarket stop.

Here's what I ended up with (just don't make the mistake of serving it as a Valentine's Day dinner like I did one year ~ not so romantic)

Nanner's Easy Chili

1 medium white onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs canola oil

1 lb lean ground sirloin

1 can Bush's Chili Beans, medium sauce

1/2 jar salsa (I use Tostitos because it's pretty smooth) OR 1 can Ro-tel

Palmful chili powder (yes, it's a measurement dammit)

1 tsp cajun seasoning

2 tsp cayenne

2 tbs ketchup

3 or 4 shakes Worcestershire

3 tbs bbq sauce (we like Kraft honey barbeque)

1 tsp mustard

4 or 5 slices cooked bacon, crumbled  (crowning glory)

1. In a stockpot, mix together onion, garlic, and oil.  Sweat 'em all down until the onions become translucent, 4 -5 mins on medium heat

2. Add chili powder and cajun seasoning, combine to coat

3. Add beef and cook through

4. Dump everything else (except the bacon) on top, give it a few stirs, bring to a boil and then let simmer for 20-30 mins on medium-low heat.  The longer it simmers, the less watery it will be.

Sprinkle in the crumbled bacon, stir and serve.  We like it over egg noodles or with some Pepperidge Farm Original Goldfish Crackers.  Rice or cornbread works too.  Garnish with cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo, chopped scallions - whatever blows your skirt up.  After the flavors meld in the fridge for a day, this tastes even better.  

This recipe serves 4 -6, but if you're not a leftovers-from-last-night person, like my husband grrr, then it will keep nicely in the freezer for up to 30 days.

So you come home from a long day and decide it's time to break out the chili when you realize you forgot to get scallions and crackers. Is there a way to enjoy chili sans fixings?  Hallelujah, there is!  It's called the CHILI CORNBREAD BAKE!

Here's what you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 425.  Thaw the chili and throw it in the microwave to take the chill off or melt any remaining ice chunks.  It shouldn't be hot, just lukewarm.

2.  Mix up 2 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Mix, but instead of using 2/3 cup milk, use 1/2 cup milk and 1 small can of creamed sweet corn.  Let it rest for a few minutes.

3.  In a greased cassarole dish, pour 2/3rds of the cornbread batter and spread evenly.

4. Dollop chili on top as evenly as possible, but don't mix in.

5. Sprinkle 3/4 cup shredded cheese over the chili.  I use chihuahua, cheddar & jack - whatever you prefer.

6. Dollop remaining cornbread batter on top 

7.  Turn the oven down to 400 and bake for 25 minutes.  Sprinkle another 1/2 cup shredded cheese on top and bake for another 7-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the edges of the cornbread brown slightly & start to pull away from the sides of the baking dish.

Let it rest for a few minutes, cut into portions with a spatula and have at!  My husband liked this so much, he told me to put it on "the list."  It ends up like a delicious bastardized version of lasagna.  (PS - Keep in mind that you can do this with any chili, your own secret recipe perhaps?, provided it's not very watery when you assemble the cornbread bake)